The International Society for the Study of Religion Nature and Culture (ISSRNC) , The India China Institute (ICI) at The New School, American University’s Center for Latin American and Latino Studies (CLALS) and International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) are excited to announce an international conference on the theme of mountains and sacred landscapes. The conference will include the latest research on the intersections of religion, nature and culture and will feature special presentations from the India China Institute’s three-year Sacred Himalaya Initiative.

The conference seeks to critically explore the ways in which the idea of sacred landscapes is entangled with diverse communities, with particular attention to mountain landscapes. The conference will feature interdisciplinary dialogue about what kinds of meanings shape, and are shaped by, the effects of climate change, mass extinction, human population growth and ecological degradation of mountains, forests, rivers and other sacred landscapes.

As we enter the new geologic epoch that scientists and scholars are referring to as the ‘Anthropocene,’ diverse global mountain communities have begun to face growing social, economic, political, and ecological challenges. Melting glaciers, shifting agricultural patterns, conflicts over mining and resource extraction, risks to livelihoods, and the consequences of increasingly erratic global climate change pose unknown future challenges to many sacred landscapes, including mountain communities and ecosystems around the world, as well as the human and non-human beings that rely on them.

We invite scholars from all disciplines, including environmental history and environmental studies, science studies, anthropology, philosophy, political science, religious studies and geography, to submit proposals related to sacred landscapes.

Proposals may address any of the following themes:

Challenges and opportunities for sacred landscapes in the 21st century

Theoretical or religious conceptualizations of place, space, and landscape

Traditional/local knowledge and its effects on social and ecological justice

Ecosystem sustainability and the future of mountain and forest people

Ecosystem destruction and the fate of the non-human community

Mountains as diverse ecosystems and sites of religious negotiation

Manifestations of the sacred in diverse landscapes

Theoretical or religious conceptualizations of place, space, and landscape

All presenters must be members in good standing of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture and registered for the conference by 1 March 2017. All scholars interested in religion, nature and culture are encouraged to support the Society by joining or renewing at the ISSRNC membership page.

MOUNTAINS & SACRED LANDSCAPES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

The official hashtag for the conference is #MTNSL2017 on Twitter and Facebook, we encourage you to follow and connect with the conference sponsors.

More information about the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University can be found online at: www.american.edu/clals/. Interested scholars are also encouraged to follow the Center on Twitter @AU_CLALS and our Facebook page.

Scholars who will need letters of invitation in order to obtain a visa for travel to the United States must indicate this through the submission form.

This process can often take considerable time so it should be undertaken upon the acceptance of proposals or papers. On the submission form, please check “yes,” after the prompt regarding whether or not you need a visa letter.